A blog dedicated to coverage of rock news, reviews of CD's/DVD's, live gigs and interviews with musicians who have made rock music great!
Coverage of hard rock, classic rock, AOR and popular melodic rock music across the genre.
This blog is the creation of Alun Williams, a Brit now living in Michigan whose previous credits include writing for the following sites:
www.classicrock.about.com
www.classicrockrevisited.com
and www.rocknrolluniverse.com (Now gone)
I hope you enjoy your visit here!

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Rock News for Thursday 15th July, 2010 - Late update

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry treated and released after crash

The Boston Globe has covered a report regarding Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry being involved in a motorcycle crash. Fortunately it seems he's OK.

Napoli, July 2010 – Former THE STORM singer Kevin Chalfant returns at the helm of TWO FIRES with the band’s third studio album entitled “Burning Bright” to be released in Europe and Asia on Frontiers Records on September 24th.

TWO FIRES debut album in 2000 was hailed as one of the Melodic Rock highlights of that year, showcasing the return of 2 very well known faces in the Melodic Rock world: singer Kevin Chalfant and guitarist Josh Ramos, both from THE STORM, a band which also featured former Journey members Ross Valory, keyboardist Gregg Rolie and drummer Steve Smith. THE STORM are considered one of the best expressions of Melodic Rock in the 90’s, thanks to 2 outstanding releases, the Self-titled debut album (which sported the US Top 20 hit “I’ve Got a Lot to Learn About Love”) on Interscope and the follow-up “Eye of the Storm” on MFN.

The Two Fires concept came about when Frontiers Records President, Serafino Perugino asked Chalfant if he wanted to put up a new band which could fill the hole left in the fans' hearts by Steve Perry's demise from Journey, and he willingly accepted this new challenge in his career. That is why he teamed up with former bandmate in The Storm, Josh Ramos, on guitar and with the cooperation of worldwide known players such as Kenny Aronoff (Jon Bon Jovi, John Cougar) on drums, Willie Weeks on bass, Jim Peterik (Survivor, Pride of Lions, World Stage) on keyboards created the Two Fires debut album. Produced by Kevin himself together with his old mate George Tutko (XYZ, Alias), “Two Fires” was pure, unadulterated, AOR bliss: a massive masterpiece that re-launched this musical style in the new millennium.

Two Fires also appeared on the cover of the ROCK IT Magazine in Germany and ROCK TIME in France, plus made two live appearances at THE GODS festival in 1999 and 2000, both written in stone as some of the most exciting moments in the history of the festival ever! Two Fires released later another album “Ignition”: another great example of pure melodic rock in the vein of Journey, Boston, Foreigner and classic Bryan Adams, before Ramos and Chalfant got busy pursuing other projects.

Still thanks to Perugino’s request to Kevin Chalfant, TWO FIRES are now back with a superb new release which is set to bring back the concept to the monster debut, with songs that are set to light the hearts and minds of Melodic Rock fans. “Burning Bright” sees a new set of musicians surrounding Chalfant. “I decided to use my live band as much as possible. But I did have several special guests, one being Rex Carroll of Whitecross a wonderful guitarist, another Denny Rockey, an independent Christian music artist” says the singer.

“I wrote more than 20 tracks for this album and I believe the result is a great collection of songs that fit together well” adds Kevin Chalfant. Included on the album is also the superb “Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid”, written by the singer together with Neal Schon (Journey) and Gregg Rolie (ex Journey, Santana and of course The Storm). “That’s a song I wrote with Neal and Gregg in 1993 after I performed live with Journey” tells Kevin “I believe the original design for this song was to be for Journey. I would have to say it is probably one of the stand outs on this cd. When I lived in Northern California then, it was easy to put writing sessions together at Gregg’s cabin. I still have a few more of them up my sleeve. I don't have "favorite" song to speak of. All of the new songs have moments and a special meaning to me. I really love "Answer To My Prayer", "Hold On To Your Dream" and "All For One"... I guess I love the whole album, really.”

A videoclip for “Is It Any Wonder” is in the works and will be previewed during August.

“Burning Bright” final tracklisting includes:

Is It Any Wonder; Lost In The Song; Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid; Epic In The Night; Shattered Without You; Burning Bright; Hold On To Your Dream; Still In Love; Answer To My Prayer; Relentless; All For One.

The songs “Is It Any Wonder” and “Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid” can exclusively be listened in full in streaming on the Frontiers Web radio. Tune in at: www.frontiers.it/webradio

Paul Gilbert is regarded internationally as one of the greatest players in the industry. Starting his recording career with Shrapnel Records as a teenager in the late 80’s, Gilbert remains one of the most active guitarists from the original shred guitar scene. His rise to Platinum success includes a number one song with Mr. Big, and cult status as founding member of the legendary and highly successful underground progressive metal band Racer X.

Killer Cactus performance footage recorded in various cities throughout the band's 2006/07 tour.

This incarnation of the band sees original members Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert and Jim McCarty reunited and joined by former Savoy Brown frontman Jimmy Kunes on vocals. The group had just released a new album, Cactus V.